MAJOR LEAGUE ROUNDUP: Lester, A's put stop to Royals' win streak

Royals catcher Salvador Perez showed his frustration after the Athletics’ Josh Donaldson hit a home run during the seventh inning of Tuesday’s game in Kansas City.

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The Oakland Athletics’ combination of Jon Lester and Josh Donaldson was too much for the Kansas City Royals.

Lester pitched six strong innings and Donaldson homered twice and drove in four runs as the Athletics won 11-3 Tuesday night, snapping the Royals’ eight-game winning streak.

Lester (13-7) has won all three of his starts since joining the A’s in a trade from Boston in a deadline deal on July 31 that sent All-Star outfielder Yoenis Cespedes to the Red Sox. Lester struck out nine and allowed three runs on six hits and two walks.

The timing of the trade was bad for the Royals, having to face Lester twice in 10 days.

The Royals have won 11 of 13, with both losses coming against Lester — who improved to 9-3 with a 1.84 ERA in 13 career starts against Kansas City.

Donaldson homered in the seventh and eighth off left-hander Bruce Chen for his third multi-homer game of the season. He also added an RBI double in the first and a sacrifice fly in the fifth.

Brandon Moss had four hits, matching his career high, as the A’s finished with a season-high 20 hits.

RANGERS 3, RAYS 2: Carlos Ramos walked Adam Rosales with two outs in the 14th inning to force in the winning run and Texas beat Tampa Bay.

Ramos (2-5), the Rays’ seventh pitcher, walked Rosales on four pitches, allowing pinch-running pitcher Nick Martinez to score. Texas’ sixth pitcher, Scott Baker (1-3) earned the victory with two scoreless innings. The Rangers had lost all 20 games in which he appeared before Tuesday.

MARINERS 6, BLUE JAYS 3: Kyle Seager and Kendrys Morales hit solo home runs, Dustin Ackley added a key two-out, two-run single, and Seattle moved into a tie for the second AL wild card with a win over Toronto.

The Mariners won for the seventh time in eight games to catch Detroit in the wild-card race.

Young (11-6) pitched six strong innings, allowing just two hits. He yielded a first-inning run after walking Jose Reyes on four pitches and giving up Melky Cabrera’s RBI double to start the game. He then retired 14 straight after Cabrera’s double.

Toronto starter J.A. Happ (8-7) gave up seven hits and struck out only one in six innings.

ASTROS 10, TWINS 4: Chris Carter homered twice and tied a career high with five RBIs to lead Houston over Minnesota.

The game was tied in the third inning when Carter’s two-out, two-run drive to the Crawford Boxes in left field put Houston up 3-1.

Carter connected again on his next at-bat with a three-run shot in the fifth which chased Minnesota rookie starter Yohan Pino.

Oswaldo Arcia homered twice for the Twins.

NATIONAL LEAGUE

DODGERS 4, BRAVES 2: Dan Haren pitched six solid innings and sparked the go-ahead rally with a single, leading Los Angeles to another win over skidding Atlanta.

Haren (10-9) allowed a fourth-inning homer to B.J. Upton that put the Braves up 2-1, but the light-hitting pitcher came through with a one-out single to right in the fifth. Carl Crawford followed with a double, and Haren scored the tying run on Yasiel Puig’s grounder to third.

Matt Kemp hit a little blooper to right that just got over the glove of second baseman Tommy La Stella, bringing home Crawford.

Mike Minor (4-8) matched his longest outing of the past month after being skipped his previous turn in the rotation. The Atlanta lefty went 6 2-3 innings, allowing eight hits.

MARLINS 3, CARDINALS 0: Jarred Cosart pitched seven innings in a duel with Adam Wainwright to earn his first victory for Miami, who beat St. Louis.

Cosart allowed three hits and one walk to win for the first time since July 7. The victory came in his second start for the Marlins after being acquired from Houston in a trade for prospects. He’s 1-1 with Miami and 10-7 overall this year.

Wainwright (14-7), making his first start against the Marlins since 2010, missed a chance to became the first 15-game winner in the majors. He went seven innings and allowed three runs, with two coming on a home run off the foul pole by Donovan Solano.

Hendricks (4-1) struck out five and walked one in his third consecutive win, continuing an impressive opening run for his major league career. Anthony Rizzo hit his 26th homer for the Cubs.

Trying for a major league-high 15th win, Peralta (14-7) allowed three runs and seven hits in 6 1-3 innings.

NATIONALS 7, METS 1: Michael Taylor homered in his big league debut, setting off a silly sequence to retrieve the souvenir, and Washington backed Doug Fister with four long shots in a romp over New York.

Bryce Harper homered early, then Anthony Rendon, Ian Desmond and Taylor connected in the sixth inning as the NL East leaders won their ninth straight at Citi Field.

Promoted from Triple-A over the weekend, Taylor singled in his first at-bat and later hit a two-run drive the opposite way at one of the majors’ most spacious parks.

Fister (12-3) came back from a 25-minute rain delay and pitched seven shutout innings. He gave up seven hits, walked none and struck out three.

Rafael Montero (0-3) was tagged for three homers and five runs in five-plus innings.

PADRES 4, ROCKIES 1: Odrisamer Despaigne pitched five-hit ball for seven innings, leading San Diego to a win over the Rockies for their fourth straight win.

Despaigne (3-3) struck out eight and walked two for the Padres, who have won 10 of 13. Chris Nelson drove in two runs in the eighth inning for the Padres.

Alexi Amarista and Abraham Almonte also drove in runs. Yasmani Grandal had two of the Padres’ six hits.

Yohan Flande (0-5) went six innings and gave up four hits and two runs as Colorado lost for the fifth time in six games.

INTERLEAGUE

RED SOX 3, REDS 2: Yoenis Cespedes hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning, lifting Boston to a win over the Reds.

One pitch after ducking away from Jonathan Broxton’s high-and-inside fastball, Cespedes launched a no-doubt, 433-foot drive to center field with two outs and Brock Holt on second base to give the Red Sox back-to-back victories for the first time since a five-game winning streak from July 13-20.

Tommy Layne (1-0) got the final out of the seventh inning for the win. Broxton (4-1) was the loser.

Mat Latos retired 11 straight batters before Daniel Nava led off the seventh with a double. Xander Bogaerts snapped a 0-for-15 slump with an RBI single.

WHITE SOX 3, GIANTS 2: Gordon Beckham hit an RBI single with two outs in the 10th inning and Chicago beat San Francisco after blowing a two-run lead in the ninth.

One batter after Jordan Danks was thrown out trying to score from third on a fielder’s choice, Beckham hit an 0-1 pitch from San Francisco reliever Santiago Casilla (1-2) past shortstop Brandon Crawford into left field. Sierra, who entered the game as a late defensive replacement, scored easily.

Adam Dunn hit a two-run home run off Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong in the first for Chicago, which wasted another strong start by Chris Sale when reliever Jake Petricka gave up four hits in the ninth.

ANGELS 7, PHILLIES 2: Kole Calhoun homered and had an RBI single during a seven-run sixth inning, and Los Angeles’ struggling offense rebounded for a victory over Philadelphia.

David Freese had a two-run double during the lengthy rally, which propelled the Angels to just its second win in seven games. Calhoun bookended the rally with two of his three hits for the Angels, who had scored just nine runs in their previous 61 innings.

C.J. Wilson (9-8) pitched into the seventh inning of his first victory since June 24.

EXPORT (AP) — Police say a Westmoreland County man was drunk when he locked his three children out of the house and told them to go “look for seashells” along a dark and dangerous stretch of rural road. Online court records don’t list an attorney for Charles Seibel, 36, of Washington Township. He has been jailed since his arrest Saturday night. That’s when police repo